June 09, 2009 |

Finally: home, sweet home. Tonight the Orioles will host the Seattle Mariners in the opening game the teams’ three-game set here in Baltimore at 7:05pm.

Following yesterday’s off-day the O’s have returned home after a long six-game West Coast trip, where with stops at Seattle’s Safeco Field and Oakland’s Oakland Coliseum, the Birds stumbled to a disappointing 1-5 record. On the year to date they’ve already had losing streaks of eight, four, and five on the road and have now dropped 20 of their last 26 when having to travel. Needless to say, the team must be very, very excited to play their next nine games in their own friendly confines at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Tonight Dave Trembley will send Brad Bergesen to the mound for the tenth start of his young career in the bigs. He’s really been in a nice groove as of late; his last two performances have been quality starts and he’s lowered his ERA to 4.64, the lowest its been since his winning debut. Bergesen’s last start was against this same Mariner club he’ll face tonight. Last Wednesday at Safeco, he showed nice poise and went seven strong, yielding only two runs, but had to settle for the no-decision in the eventual 3-2 Oriole loss.

Bergesen will be opposed by the same man he was five days ago, Jason Vargas. The 26-year old lefty also pitched very well in the game and also found himself with nothing to show for his efforts in taking a no-decision. The Orioles scoring 2 runs on Vargas over his 5.1 innings actually raised his ERA to 1.94 — which amazingly is the highest its been all season through five starts and seven total appearances.